YMCA brings attention to drowning prevention

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on July 26, 2024.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Leigh Dautel and Jesse Jones swim across the pool lane after rolling into the pool as part of the "Swim To Survive Challenge" during the National Drowning Prevention Day events Thursday at the YMCA of Lethbridge.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

This week marked National Drowning Prevention Week (NDPW) and July 25 was designated as World Drowning Prevention Day by the World Health Organization.

The Cor Van Raay YMCA of Lethbridge hosted their inaugural Swim for [Y]our Safety swim-a-thon to bring awareness to drowning prevention.

Jillian Johnston, aquatic manager for the YMCA of Lethbridge, said the event served two purposes, bringing awareness to drowning prevention, but also as a fundraising event to collect funds for their Shape [Y]our future campaign, which provides financial assistance for people to take swimming lessons among other things.

“What we notice is that the majority of drownings happen during the month of July. It is by far one of the highest statistics that we see, so during this week we make sure that we advertise as much information about how to be safe in and around the water,” said Johnston.

She said in 2023 the World Health Organization, along with the United Nations, have been pushing for information to be spread all over the world about drowning and how to prevent it from happening.

“Drowning is actually the number one cause of death for children under five years old, so we need to make sure that we’re teaching people about the dangers of water in and out of the home,” said Johnston.

She said they want people to be aware of what measures they can take to prevent drowning.

“Small children should stay within arm’s reach and we also want to make sure adults are aware of what children are doing while in the water, making sure that people are paying attention to their children and not their phones when in and around the water,” said Johnston.

When talking about drowning Johnston said one of the things people do not often realize is that it usually happens when people are not intending to be in the water, like when boating without a lifejacket on, or walking on ice during the winter months.

Because of this, Johnston says it is important for people to learn how to fall into the water and be able to swim to a point of safety.

“We use the swim to survive initiative from the lifesaving society that says you can roll into a pool, tread for a minute and then swim 50 meters as a way to practice that type of self rescue if something in the future happened to make sure that you can get yourself out safely and efficiently,” said Johnston.

For the fundraising portion of Thursday’s events, Johnston said various staff members wore lifejackets while working their shift and they would only be able to remove them after collecting a certain amount of money.

“We’ve been doing drowning prevention for almost four years here at the facility, but this is our first year for ‘Swim for [Y]our Safety’ and what we’ve done is given people pledge packages, so they’ve been collecting pledges beforehand and now they’re swimming their lengths in order to bring in their money for their pledges,” said Johnston.

She said they hope to be able to turn the Swim for [Y]our Safety event to an annual fundraiser during NDPW.

“Our goal this year is to collect $3,000 and as of 10 a.m. We were at $1,400 but we are here until 10 p.m.,” said Johnston.

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